i like canned goods when meat is included

Here’s a little secret well-known fact: I don’t know how to cook. At all. I got very excited today over my lunch break when I went to the grocery store by my work (the one that’s always full of senior citizens, no matter which day I go) to get some dinner/lunch options since I’m attempting to save money and not get takeout as much. I was very excited to see Chef Boyardee on sale 10 for $10. MEALS IN A CAN, BITCHES.

My aunt got me a cookbook years ago where everything requires only four ingredients in everything, but sometimes those ingredients require things like milk. Even instant rice requires milk, at least the fancy Cajun kind that I bought does. And you guessed it. I never have milk. I don’t drink it enough and it ends up going bad. Maybe I should get a cat, so I’d at least have a reason to keep milk in my apartment. That sounds logical.

In the meantime, I need your advice. I need to know of any possible ways you’ve gotten yourself in to take your lunch to work or to eat at home instead of calling for carside-to-go service that has become entirely too convenient for me. Even when I end up with leftovers from eating out somewhere, I never remember to take them to work for lunch. So, what? Any advice at all?

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How ironic. I just placed a carside-to-go order at Outback, and decided to visit some blogs while I wait for it. My favorite lunch-from-home options to bring to work were always black beans and rice, and spanokopeta. You have to cook those things, but if you do it on the weekend, you can eat it all week, maybe longer. Neither has milk, either. Bonus!

I’ve found that some of the weight watchers and healthy choice meals to be surprisingly not that bad. i have a few favorites that i eat over and over again. but my coworkers call them eating a box. heh

The trick that usually works for me is to make sure that I have everything I’m taking for lunch ready to go all bagged up in the fridge or on the counter the night before so that I don’t have the “i don’t wanna” excuse in the morning. (the same thing goes for going to the gym. If I don’t have my gym clothes bagged and ready to go before I go to bed, I will not be going to the gym the next day).

Another thing that helps is to pack a “treat” with my lunch so I have something to look forward to (that I can’t just buy at work). When I’m on my game (i.e. not in the last few months) it will be something that I baked earlier in the week: banana bread, a cupcake, a brownie, or what not. When I’m not in a suzie homemaker mood, it can be something like a jello pudding container or a few cookies from a box.

You need to keep a couple of cans of evaporated milk in your cabinet. We never have milk on hand…or GOOD milk, most of the time it just sits in the fridge and get lumpy…my pantry’s always got at least three cans of evap milk in there at all times.

I always have to put a note with my purse, otherwise, I’ll forget to take my lunch into work with me!

If you have a convenient grocery store, pick up only a couple of days worth of stuff at a time so you can always have fresh food to eat instead of the crap. So you only buy a quart of milk and it doesn’t go bad. Also, you can buy cajun seasoning to use so you don’t have to use the prepackaged crap. Buy a George Foreman grill so you can easily cook turkey burgers and chicken breasts for quick meals. For leftovers and sandwiches, package everything the night before and put it in a cooler bag with a really good ice pack — try getting one from a medical supply company. That will keep it cold through lunch the next day. And use your scrapbook supplies to make a really nice sign for the door as a second reminder!!!

about me

Oh, hey. I’m Wendy. I live in Minnesota. I’m a complete HR nerd and, yes, I do have a mouth like a sailor and a sense of humor that matches a group of high school freshmen boys. I have a wife, a toddler, a baby on the way, an ongoing list of DIY projects that I haven’t started, Minnesota Lynx season tickets, and a vitamin D deficiency that’s best remedied by beach time. I think about things I want to write about and I mean to make that happen, but…

Anything I actually end up writing comes from my head and isn’t representative of my employer or any other organization.